The days of the promising 2024 Royals team that squared off with the Yankees in the postseason are well in the past. Bobby Witt Jr. remains every bit of one of the most exciting players in the game, but the talent around him has not blossomed in the way this team had hoped for, KC now sitting with one of the worst records in the American League. Witt Jr., self-evidently, is untouchable, but even with a team as underwhelming as the Royals, one can find specific pieces whose pursuit is worthwhile for a team looking
to improve around the margins.
The Yankees need help at the catching position, and Salvador Perez’s experience makes for a good match—at least until you get a look at the numbers he has put up this season, currently with a .603 OPS, by far and away the worst of his career. Youngster Carter Jensen, who has received the bulk of the playing time behind the dish, is controllable until 2032 and not going anywhere. If the Yankees are going to look to the Royals for improvements, they’ll need to do so beyond the catching position.
One of the reasons why this Royals season hasn’t gone according to plan is Vinnie Pasquantino—on his way back from the IL as we speak—and when he was out there, he was putting up the worst season of his career, with an OPS+ of 88. Any deal for the left-handed bat controllable through the 2028 campaign would be tricky. Surely, the Royals won’t want to sell low after one bad year, but justifying leaving the DH spot for Giancarlo Stanton becomes harder and harder with each injury setback.
There is no doubt that the most reasonable path to improving your roster by dealing with the Royals is on the pitching side of things, even if, as a whole, their staff has been a far bigger disappointment than their lineup. A recent report from Ken Rosenthal of The Athletic has noted reluctance on KC’s part to deal Michael Wacha and/or Seth Lugo, seeking a return likely to be too great for most teams to be willing to pay. While losing either or both of these starters would severely hurt this team’s pitching staff, we’re talking about veterans controllable only through the end of next season. And the Royals are not a team one might describe as being a few tweaks away from contention, particularly not with Cole Ragans’ injury woes that will keep him sidelined until at least the middle of next season.
The AL leader in innings pitched at 114.2 frames, Wacha is having his fifth straight very reliable campaign, fully acquitted to his role a trusty veteran innings-eater. Since the start of 2022, Wacha has an ERA+ of 120 in over 700 innings for three different teams. Asking for a significant return for him is justifiable, but when it comes to Lugo, he has failed to live up to his 2024 numbers, his first season with the Royals. Since the start of last season, Lugo has a 4.32 ERA and 1.350 WHIP, and it’s not as if the $21.5 million he’ll make next year could be seen as a team-friendly deal.
Possessing little to no strikeout stuff in its bullpen outside of Steven Cruz, the Royals don’t entice the buyer on the reliever market. It wasn’t that long ago that Matt Strahm was a dominant reliever, though, and as a pending free agent, he may attract some attention despite a season ERA north of 5.00. Another lefty, Daniel Lynch IV, is the only option when it comes to someone actually performing well this season, boasting a WHIP under 1.00.
One of the few guaranteed sellers at the moment, the Royals could use that to their advantage, but in the end, most teams will only go so far, the Yankees among them.
